So with Spring right around the corner, and everyone getting ready to start their new projects, I want to remind everyone about the importance of getting a permit for your projects. Now, not every project requires a permit, so the first thing you are going to want to do is call up your local building and codes office to verify if you need a permit or not. Now if you find out that a permit is required you might be thinking about avoiding the hassle and going ahead without one. Here is why that is a bad idea:

1.) It's the law. Now that is probably enough to convince most people but for those it doesn't, consider the hefty fines that you may incur because of unpermitted work. Also, in some cases, the City/County might even have you demolish the work and redo it. Imagine paying to have the work done twice, and paying fines on top of it all. Not worth it.

2.) Permits are relatively cheap and can very from one city/state to another. We have even had permits cost as low as $20. When you compare the cost of a permit to the total price of a project, permits usually don’t even make a dent in the budget, and that’s without considering the downsides to getting caught.

3.) You get another, third-party representative onsite. Now you may think of the building and codes inspector as the “Bad-Guy” who is there to just make your life more difficult, but that is absolutely not the case. The whole point of having an inspector check the work being done is to protect you, the homeowner from sub-par craftsmanship.

4.) Make sure your contractor is the one pulling the permit, not you. This is for liability purposes, and the reason why contractors are required to be licensed and insured. You do not want to be held responsible in the case of anything going wrong, and you shouldn’t be.

So here's my list of reasons why you should insist on having your contractor pull permits for any work that’s being done for you. Let me know what you think, and if I left anything out in the comments below.

By Jonathan Smith